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Article published In:
Babel
Vol. 64:1 (2018) ► pp.81–110

From El Gran Meaulnes to Meaulnes el Grande

A comparative study of the Spanish retranslations of a French classic

| Universidad Pontificia Comillas Madrid
| Universidad Pontificia Comillas Madrid

The present contribution aims at a comparative study of the Spanish retranslations of the French classic Le Grand Meaulnes. With the objective of identifying macro and micro-structural variations among the various retranslations, a parallel corpus is compiled, the source-text and the various translations are aligned and imported into a translation memory which allows for a targeted analysis of specific linguistic elements. The results obtained from the corpus analysis show that, despite their differences the retranslations display a relative homogeneity, in so far as they are largely source-text oriented and foreignizing. Relative homogeneity notwithstanding, differences can be observed between twentieth century-translations and those carried out in the twenty-first-century. The translators of the latter take a specific approach to translating the novel, either as a literary critic or by taking a critical stance towards a more assimilative approach adopted in an earlier translation.

Keywords: retranslation, comparative study, corpus analysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Translations of Le Grand Meaulnes into Spanish: Latin America and Spain
  • 3.The theoretical framing of retranslation
  • 4.The methodological framing of the study
  • 5.Analysis of extra-textual aspects
    • 5.1Publishing houses, editorial series, targeted public and translators
  • 6.Intra-textual analysis: Macro-structural aspects
    • 6.1Paratexts, title and chapter titles
      • 6.1.1Paratexts
      • 6.1.2Translation of the title and chapter titles
        • 6.1.2.1The nature and function of literary titles
        • 6.1.2.2Title translation
    • 6.2Translation method
  • 7.Intra-textual analysis: Micro-structural aspects
    • 7.1Sentence level
    • 7.2Lexical level
    • 7.3Translation of culturemes
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Editions of Le Grand Meaulnes
Published online: 8 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00028.rod
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Editions of Le Grand Meaulnes

French edition

Fournier, A.
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Spanish editions

Fournier, A.
1980 El gran Meaulnes. Una misteriosa aventura en los límites del sueño y la realidad. Transl. by María Teresa Arbó. Barcelona: Editorial PlanetaGoogle Scholar
1981 [1979] El gran Meaulnes. Transl. by María Campuzano; and José María Valverde. Barcelona: Editorial Bruguera.Google Scholar
1988 El gran Meaulnes. Transl. by Ana de la Guerra. Madrid: Alborada Ediciones.Google Scholar
1996 [1964] El gran Meaulnes. Transl. by Gerardo Selva y Jonio González Cofreces. Barcelona: Plaza & Janés.Google Scholar
2000 El gran Meaulnes. Ed. and transl. by Juan Bravo Castillo. Madrid: Cátedra.Google Scholar
2012 Meaulnes el Grande. Transl. by Juan Buenaventura. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.Google Scholar
2013 [1983] El gran Meaulnes. Transl. by Claudio Galindo. Madrid: Anaya.Google Scholar

English edition

Fournier, A.
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